Analysis of the Opinion of Judge William R. Overton

        Judge William R. Overton sets out five criteria in examining the validity of 'creation science' as a scientific theory in the case McLean vs. Arkansas. Two of these characteristics are testability against the empirical world and the tentativeness of a theory's conclusion. Overton explains why he thinks these criteria are important and why creation science fails to satisfy them.         Overton feels that testability against the empirical world is a fundamental tenet of modern science. According …

…flight would never be possible. In science there is no absolute. least of all the concept that certain scientific theories can never be tested against the empirical world. This also leads to one of the other criteria that Overton uses to judge creation science, the tenativeness of a theory's conclusions.         Tentativity is considered to be a natural aspect of a scientific theory. To date there has not been one scientific theory which has been absolute.